The Ainsty is first recorded in the
Domesday Book of 1086 (in the form
Ainestig), when it was a wapentake of the
West Riding of Yorkshire. It was named from Ainsty Cliff at
Bilbrough, presumably the original meeting place of the wapentake. Ainsty Cliff was itself named from a small narrow path which led from Steeton Farm over Ainsty Cliff to Bilbrough. The word Ainsty is from
Old English ān stīga, meaning "one-man path" or "narrow path", which became
einstigi in
Old Norse. The city of York later claimed jurisdiction over the area under a
royal charter of
King John granted in the early 13th century. The validity of this charter was a matter of dispute between the city and
the Crown, eventually leading to the imprisonment of the mayor in 1280 when it was proved that a clause in the document had been altered. The comparative absence of alteration to these churches after (and of large later churches) suggests that the Ainsty was something of an economic backwater during the later mediaeval period. The area contains the sites of at least two deserted villages: Easedike, just north of
Tadcaster on the Wharfe, and Wilstrop on the south bank of the Nidd. The English Civil War battlefield of
Marston Moor (1644) lies within the Ainsty, near
Long Marston. ==Municipal reform==